Pass the Potatoes
by LeaNicolaie
Summary: In which Kaname and Zero are too tall and Yuuki thinks they need a bigger kitchen. KanaZeroKana


**Pass the Potatoes**

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Yuuki stood at the archway to the kitchen with a bizarre, but not unusual mixture of concern, worry, fondness, and exasperation. The smells coming from within were enough to make her mouth water and she never had a word of complaint towards the food produced by her roommates, but seeing them like this, while in the process, was plenty frown-inducing.

If Yuuki were shorter than average, then her roommates were (kind of a lot) taller than the average young man, and the average-sized kitchen they had couldn't safely contain the two of them at the same time. They worked wonderfully together, knowing each other's habits and body language enough to work around the minimal space they had at their disposal, but she'd rather they shouldn't to begin with. It was like waiting and expecting a terrible accident to happen as she watched. They needed a bigger kitchen.

"Zero, the salt please?"

"Can't, hands full."

And there it was. Kaname had to reach out his long arm at a near impossible angle to get to the salt he needed, almost tipping over a pot of hot sauce on the way. Zero, stepping back to give him room, jostled a bowl of salad. He jerked in surprise and whatever was keeping his hands full nearly spilled to land on Kaname's outstretched arm.

Salt successfully gathered, Kaname straightened, sending Zero a distracted, apologetic smile.

"Sorry love."

"S'fine."

Pouring a mix of something onto an oiled pan with a spatula, Zero lifted his shoulder to wipe absently at his moist cheek, the heat in the kitchen leaving a sheen of sweat over his skin. When he repeated the action, Kaname took a pin from his shirt pocket and swept Zero's hair aside to pin it in place, slipping a kerchief from his back pocket to dab amusedly at Zero's face.

"Thanks."

"Mm."

Trying to hold in her wide smile, Yuuki tried not to make too much noise, and leaned against the side of the archway for support in the likely chance her knees failed her if she gave in to a swoon. She was all for wanting more space, but one of the cutest things about their kitchen she was loathe to change was how she got to see Kaname and Zero so unguarded and open with each other. With their minds mostly on the food, they were less conscious of accepting and showing physical affection. These short, casual exchanges between them just happened without hesitation or calculation, as if they simply couldn't help themselves, being in arm's reach.

She was sure her overall levels of self-control had improved from the sheer number of times she'd had to stop herself from screaming, "Please don't stop!"

She wouldn't be against taking pictures, but that felt voyeuristic and faintly creepy, not to mention stalkerish (she didn't want to cultivate weird fetishes like the chairman) and both Kaname and Zero somehow always caught her at it. Then deleted the pictures when she wasn't looking. Well, Zero did. Kaname made sure to keep those he found a liking for (which, unsurprisingly, all featured Zero).

He had a secret stash of albums spanning decades' worth of Zero doing everything from washing the dishes to tying his laces to severing the head of some random vampire that was coincidentally listed on the Association's Naughty List. He had plenty more videos (they were easier to hide – Zero was crap with computers) of Zero in motion; some in such clear definition it was a wonder it was video footage at all, and others from CCTV cameras she was really afraid to ask how he'd gotten his hands on.

(Yuuki was unaware Kaname had just as much pictures and footage of her hidden away somewhere in their cozy apartment. No, Zero didn't know about those either. Takuma just dismissed it as Kaname's own brand of love that came with the advance in technology, though he could do without Kaname staring so avidly at his phone during business meetings. It was a little hard to laugh away how easily Kaname's attention strayed to the thousands of digital pictures he kept looking over in favor of the Very Important Business Proposal sitting in front of them.)

Zero's fried-something-that-smelled-delicious was flipped in the pan and while that was left to sizzle, Zero took a bite-size piece from one of the finished slices up to Kaname's mouth just when his head was turned.

"Very good." Kaname licked his lips.

Zero pointed to the finished plate, a silent allowance for further taste testing. Kaname looked tempted, but made no move to have some of his own.

Giving in to a resigned smile, Zero fed him another piece.

Kaname hummed happily as he chewed.

Yuuki hummed too, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"Set the table yet, Yuuki?" Zero called.

"Yep." She chirped. "Just waiting on you guys now."

Zero nodded and lifted his hand to wipe off the sauce he accidentally dipped his finger in when Kaname's mouth got there before him, swiftly, but smugly swiping it off with a suggestive sweep of his tongue.

Zero, busy with pouring the sauce onto his delicious-smelling-fried-things, was oblivious to Kaname's expectant look. "How is it?" He said instead.

Now firmly in the realm of pouting, Kaname murmured, "You've not kissed me once today." In other words, he felt neglected.

Yuuki wasn't privy to how the details of their relationship worked (they had completely opposing hours to keep, she had no idea how Zero managed Kaname's 'daily kisses' routine). But they had their established 'traditions' – they've lasted decades – which were round the clock arrangements that baffled even Takuma at times (though largely, he just found them adorable).

Of course, the road to the seemingly complicated schedule they developed was a long one, considering their fundamental differences. Kaname was all for (strategic) PDA and confronting emotional problems head-on, and Zero...wasn't. Zero also had an uncanny ability for sniffing out the existence of potentially harmful secrets, and with Kaname such a natural at keeping his cards close to his chest, it caused a myriad of misunderstandings. (Zero supposedly didn't mind not knowing everything there was to Kaname – secrets were a part of what made Kaname, Kaname – but he _knew_ when Kaname was keeping something dangerous to himself and wouldn't stand for him possibly getting hurt because he was 'too much of a tight ass' to let someone else know about it. And yes, he did his best to then wrangle whatever Kaname was hiding out of him along with a short lecture on 'why not' that started to sound recited by the fourth try.)

(The Interrogators at the Association had a long-standing crush on Zero's unconventional methods of pulling information, and tended to call him in for especially hard to crack vampires; their argument being, if they were expected to acknowledge one of their best hunters was in a permanent no-I'm-not-changing-my-mind relationship with a pureblood, they should get some benefits out of it.)

Back to the PDA. It took a while, but Kaname came to learn asking for affection from Zero, seriously or otherwise, wasn't the Taboo everyone told him it was, and that anyway, if he didn't, it was Zero's default to assume it was either unwanted or unneeded. Without clear verbal permission or direction, it was hard for Zero to initiate anything intimate, his stilted awkward gentleman mindset getting in the way.

Their first kiss kind of went along the lines of:

_Stand tensely at the end of highly enjoyable date. Stare at one another intensely._

"_..."_

"_..."_

"_...Zero, I'm fairly certain you know what I'm waiting for."_

"_...A little. But I could be wro—"_

"_Kiss. Me."_

It was downright embarrassing then, and outright hilarious now.

"...Well?" Kaname prompted. He was _not_ going to be cheated out of his daily kisses.

"Well what—you mean now?" Zero finally glanced up, not sounding annoyed in the slightest. His eyes were nauseatingly fond. "Why not after we're done here so we don't burn anything?"

"You never burn anything."

"That's up for debate." Zero muttered.

"Zero?"

He took hold of Kaname's chin and planted a super quick closed-mouth kiss Kaname was clearly unsatisfied with.

"_Zero_."

"In a sec—five seconds." Zero said calmly. Yuuki vaguely wondered how he did it, acted so...normal in the face of Kaname's pleading why-are-you-doing-this-to-me eyes. Everyone else fell prey to it. Every time. She suspected he could take over the world with it if he didn't believe it'd make him look undignified in front of other professionals and politicians.

Deeming his plate done in exactly the next five seconds, Zero turned fully in Kaname's direction and backed him up against the counter, leaning his hands on either side of his hips at the edge of the counter.

"You were saying?"

Kaname went willingly with Zero's lead and ran his hands up the length of Zero's arms, stopping once he reached his shoulders.

"You haven't given me your daily – what are they calling it now – ILUs, and I would like to collect them as of this moment."

Zero paused, blinking. "IL—what?" He shook his head and tucked his face into the crook of Kaname's neck, the movement of his jaw letting Yuuki know he was either planting a wet kiss or one of his languid licks against it. "If you don't stop talking..." He trailed off meaningfully.

Kaname fell silent.

Yuuki held in a giggle.

Seeing the beginnings of a slow, rich kiss, tongues and all, she decided she'd had enough entertainment for the evening and bounced back to the table.

Unguarded and open, yup. Maybe she should rethink her idea of a bigger kitchen. Not exactly the kind of 'bigger' she had in mind initially, but still... Having things arranged just so she knew Kaname and Zero could enjoy moments like those too (with more room to maneuver in). Might not be a bad idea.

...Which was only reinforced when she heard an alarmed gasp and the loud clanging of several pans falling to the floor followed by a hissed curse. She didn't bother holding in her laughter this time.

.fin.

Thanks for reading! :D

Disclaimer. No own.

I skimmed through the latest chapter, and what with the especially dark tone it's taking (poor Zero and Kaname XD) I needed some mindless fluff to balance things out a bit.


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